Page 155 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

132 Communication and Evolution of Society

instrumental actions of a single individual, but also the socal
coo peration of different individuals:

The production of life, of one’s own life in labor, and of another in
procreation, now appears as a double relationship: on the one hand
as a natural relationship, on the other as a social one. The latter is
social in the sense that individuals co-operate, no matter under what
conditions, in what manner, and for what purpose. Consequently a
certain mode of production or industrial stage is always combined with
a certain mode of co-operation or social stage, and this mode of co-
operation is itself a ‘‘productive force.” We observe in addition that
the multitude of productive forces accessible to men determines the
nature of society and that the “history of mankind” must always be
studied and treated in relation to the history of industry and exchange.’

The instrumental actions of different individuals are coordinated
in a purposive-rational way, that is, with a view to the goal of
production. The rules of strategic action, in accord with which
cooperation comes about, are a necessary component of the labor
process.
Means of subsistence are produced only to be consumed. The
distribution of the product of labor is, like the labor itself, socially
organized. In the case of rules of distribution, the concern ts not
with processing material or with the suitably coordinated ap-
plication of means, but with the systematic connection of recipro-
cal expectations or interests. Thus the distribution of products
requires rules of interaction that can be set intersubjectively at
the level of linguistic understanding, detached from the individual
case, and made permanent as recognized norms or rules of
communicative action.
We call a system that socially regulates labor and distribution
an economy. According to Marx, then, the economic form of
reproducing life is characteristic of the human stage of develop-
ment.
The concept of social labor as the form of reproduction of
human life has a number of connotations. It is critical of the most
basic assumptions of the modern philosophy of the subject or
reflection. The statement—“As individuals express their life,
so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with what they